Federal AI Support a Boon for Financial Services Tech

President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order directing federal agencies to prioritize the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in the areas under their responsibility.

This affects technology, the development of ethical standards to protect the public, regulatory issues and a host of other affairs touched by this revolutionary development.

The financial services industry was nowhere mentioned in the president’s order. However, anything that affects the development of AI touches the wealth management industry, “wealthtech,” which is strongly dependent on data processing, record keeping and complex, individualized solutions for clients.

The executive order is a positive step for AI’s future development. However, the financial services industry has already stolen a march and taken a leading role in preparing for the AI revolution. UBS began working within its own walls in 2016, introducing robotic automations, which now extend to approximately 1,000 tasks. This is not true AI, but lays the groundwork and familiarizes workers with the concepts involved, a key task for today.

Juniper Research says that revenue from so-called robotic process automation totaled $200 million in 2018, and they project it to reach $1.2 billion within five years.

Redtail Technology is working on a key facet of AI development: natural language processing. This allows machine analysis of communications between advisors and clients to develop solutions relevant to the customer’s needs. The first task is to assemble a library of key terms, which most companies acquire pre-assembled from sources like Microsoft. Redtail has chosen to develop its own library, which focuses on the specialized terms and concepts employed in financial services.